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Personally I think he should have pushed them to continue to work on Hydrogen cars, since electric simply moves the pollution from gasoline to coal.
But at least the President tried.

Hydrogen has its own limitations. To be practical you have to either store it as liquid or compressed gas, otherwise the energy density is way too low. Both options take energy. It also tends to be leaky because the molecules are small.

Compared to that, electric car is a decent bet. It's true that the electricity has to come from somewhere, but in foreseeable future the source of energy will be increasingly clean and renewable. It'd help if people don't easily panic about nuclear power plants.

Looks like the US are getting into Defense cuts just like their UK counterparts. The UK Military has so far accepted their government's cuts and downsizing of personnel with the only things they're complaining is the UK Army thinks sending the Territorial Army (The UK equivalent of the US National Guard) into combat might not be smart (due tot he fact they're not full-time professional train soldiers) and the UK Navy asking the government to reconsider of not scraping some ships and planes for strategic and cost efficiency reasons.

Henderson, N.C. — A 14-year-old Henderson boy calmly described in a 911 call how he shot an intruder in a home invasion last week.
"I just shot the man. He came around the corner. I shot him. He broke the whole glass out (of the back door)," the teen told the 911 dispatcher.
Authorities said Anthony Henderson Jr. 19, broke into the home at 586 S. Lynnbank Road on Thursday while the teen and his 17-year-old sister were home.http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10553140/

Residents of Leesburg, Florida were shocked to see their local Social Security office turned into a random Homeland Security checkpoint Tuesday morning, as DHS officers armed with semiautomatic rifles and accompanied by sniffer dogs checked identifications of locals.

“With their blue and white SUVs circled around the Main Street office, at least one official was posted on the door with a semiautomatic rifle, randomly checking identifications. And other officers, some with K-9s, sifted through the building,” reports the Daily Commercial.

The activity was part of Operation Shield, an unannounced drill conducted by the DHS’ Federal Protective Service centered around “detecting the presence of unauthorized persons and potentially disruptive or dangerous activities.”

The article says among other things that the DHS were looking for "...potentially disruptive or dangerous activities." That seems like a pretty broad brush to me. What does that mean? Underwear bombs? Pointy sticks? Loud music coming from your earphones? Picking your nose? Body odor? It's pretty vague.

The article says among other things that the DHS were looking for "...potentially disruptive or dangerous activities." That seems like a pretty broad brush to me. What does that mean? Underwear bombs? Pointy sticks? Loud music coming from your earphones? Picking your nose? Body odor? It's pretty vague.

Well at least Obama gave it a try.
Personally I think he should have pushed them to continue to work on Hydrogen cars, since electric simply moves the pollution from gasoline to coal.
But at least the President tried.

I think Hydrogen is fairly similiar here, most Hydrogen will be gained from electrolysis of water, though some can also be gained from siphoning it from natural gas. Both are fairly energy intensive, so you're going to need a primary energy source. That could be coal, or it could be something like wind or nuclear.

I think Electric could be the better bet, as it would require little cost to implement the infrastructure for it. You'd basically charge your car from the mains. And there's mains electricity everywhere. Storing Hydrogen is a lot more finicky.

Still the important thing is that there's efforts being made. It took a lot of failed missions and smaller missions to finally get men on the moon afterall. However I'm inclined to say that there's little direct the government can do here, other then try and investigate it for military reasons. EG an electric powered walker. Would have to have a fairly long cord to supply it with power. I'd say at a max you could give it 5 minutes battery life when it gets disconnected.

A trouble with electric in America is distances. While they are coming to the point were an electric car can go about 200 miles on a charge....you can't recharge it in a relatively short period of time like you can pump gas into a fuel tank.

To get from San Francisco to Los Angeles is around 400 miles. You have to stop for gas with just about any car made and several trucks. You can't make that run in an electric car (might be wh the Volts aren't selling) or a hydrogen car because there is no way to refill your source of power between long distance points. Hydrogren seems more reasonable because you can pump it into the car. Electric, really can't. Not in an shot period of time without just swapping batteries (which there was a company that wanted to do that in California.) Set up an electric car that had swappable standardized batteries that coul be exchanged at Rest Stops or some sort of government service stations in a quick procedure, then go. Your old batteries would be recharged for someone else's car.

Looks like the US are getting into Defense cuts just like their UK counterparts. The UK Military has so far accepted their government's cuts and downsizing of personnel with the only things they're complaining is the UK Army thinks sending the Territorial Army (The UK equivalent of the US National Guard) into combat might not be smart (due tot he fact they're not full-time professional train soldiers) and the UK Navy asking the government to reconsider of not scraping some ships and planes for strategic and cost efficiency reasons.

Well, if we aren't planning on fighting two major ground wars at a time anymore, we can fuctionally reduce the Army and Marines back down to their "normal" sizes. Of course that does bring up the question of "what is their normal size?" In theory, the United States isn't suppose to have a standing Army. It keeps a core of officers and enlisted so that if a war breaks out it can train the new army that is recruited along with the National Guard. The Marines are the Navy's ground troops and security forces, os they remain in service at reduced levels, but are still fuctional where as the Army really isn't functional as a major force at the start (World War One and Two required about a year before the Army was ready to fuction, and they had started before we entered the Second War). The Coast Guard would remain as is. The Navy and the Air Force are the two main parts of national defense and offensive striking power, along with our nuclear weapons as a deturrent. The Navy and Air Force are the ones that "show the flag" so to speak and handle the "Big Stick" policies. They also can be anyplace on the planet in a short period of time. The Army takes time to be places. The Marines are moved by the Navy. so the get to be the offensive ground fighters early on until the Army can be brough up to snuff again, if needed. This is partly why the Marines tend to have the list of places attacked in their Football Marching song. Tripoli would be against Barbary Pirates and Montozuma would be the invasion of Mexico by sea.

So of the five services...the Army is the one we can afford to cut in size. The Marines can be scaled back a bit. But the Navy and Air Force need to be maintained and kep up with technology. The Coast Guard just keeps doing what it has been doing.

Well, if we aren't planning on fighting two major ground wars at a time anymore, we can fuctionally reduce the Army and Marines back down to their "normal" sizes. Of course that does bring up the question of "what is their normal size?" In theory, the United States isn't suppose to have a standing Army. It keeps a core of officers and enlisted so that if a war breaks out it can train the new army that is recruited along with the National Guard. The Marines are the Navy's ground troops and security forces, os they remain in service at reduced levels, but are still fuctional where as the Army really isn't functional as a major force at the start (World War One and Two required about a year before the Army was ready to fuction, and they had started before we entered the Second War). The Coast Guard would remain as is. The Navy and the Air Force are the two main parts of national defense and offensive striking power, along with our nuclear weapons as a deturrent. The Navy and Air Force are the ones that "show the flag" so to speak and handle the "Big Stick" policies. They also can be anyplace on the planet in a short period of time. The Army takes time to be places. The Marines are moved by the Navy. so the get to be the offensive ground fighters early on until the Army can be brough up to snuff again, if needed. This is partly why the Marines tend to have the list of places attacked in their Football Marching song. Tripoli would be against Barbary Pirates and Montozuma would be the invasion of Mexico by sea.

So of the five services...the Army is the one we can afford to cut in size. The Marines can be scaled back a bit. But the Navy and Air Force need to be maintained and kep up with technology. The Coast Guard just keeps doing what it has been doing.

And, of course, returning the military to "normal" means there needs to be jobs in the marketplace... or we'll have thousands of unemployed people with a torn safety net who know how to do impressive damage in teams. And they'll be pissed at the robber barons... just sayin'

At this point Electric car is not meant for long distance travel. It targets city dwellers going a short distance at a time.

But Electric car is still in the starting stage. The battery technology has plenty of room to improve. If funding and interest persist (a big if), it will become more affordable and eventually suitable for longer distance.

And, of course, returning the military to "normal" means there needs to be jobs in the marketplace... or we'll have thousands of unemployed people with a torn safety net who know how to do impressive damage in teams. And they'll be pissed at the robber barons... just sayin'

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

And, of course, returning the military to "normal" means there needs to be jobs in the marketplace... or we'll have thousands of unemployed people with a torn safety net who know how to do impressive damage in teams. And they'll be pissed at the robber barons... just sayin'

And, of course, returning the military to "normal" means there needs to be jobs in the marketplace... or we'll have thousands of unemployed people with a torn safety net who know how to do impressive damage in teams. And they'll be pissed at the robber barons... just sayin'

They could ''be pissed at the robber barons'' as you said, some have also suggested the possibility than some violent groups might try to recruit some of them.

A trouble with electric in America is distances. While they are coming to the point were an electric car can go about 200 miles on a charge....you can't recharge it in a relatively short period of time like you can pump gas into a fuel tank.

To get from San Francisco to Los Angeles is around 400 miles. You have to stop for gas with just about any car made and several trucks. You can't make that run in an electric car (might be wh the Volts aren't selling) or a hydrogen car because there is no way to refill your source of power between long distance points. Hydrogren seems more reasonable because you can pump it into the car. Electric, really can't. Not in an shot period of time without just swapping batteries (which there was a company that wanted to do that in California.) Set up an electric car that had swappable standardized batteries that coul be exchanged at Rest Stops or some sort of government service stations in a quick procedure, then go. Your old batteries would be recharged for someone else's car.

Absolutely true, but how often do you commute outside a single metropolitan area?

The vast majority of travel by car is the daily commute. I could see maintaining a seperate vehicle for longer commutes if you do it frequently.

The swapping battery thing would work fine however, though someone would have to foot the bill for battery degradation.

Of course the positive end of Electric vehicles is that you wouldn't need to visit the petrol station at all.

Of course part of the problem in the USA is just plain bad urban planning. In a lot of places there is no clustered downtown. It's impossible to get anywhere without a car. Instead of a car giving you freedom, you end out being chained to it.

Of course part of the problem in the USA is just plain bad urban planning. In a lot of places there is no clustered downtown. It's impossible to get anywhere without a car. Instead of a car giving you freedom, you end out being chained to it.

Blame the car manufactures, they did everything they can to shut public transportation and influence city planning so that a car became a essential part of American Life instead of a luxury item.

Absolutely true, but how often do you commute outside a single metropolitan area?

The vast majority of travel by car is the daily commute. I could see maintaining a seperate vehicle for longer commutes if you do it frequently.

The swapping battery thing would work fine however, though someone would have to foot the bill for battery degradation.

Of course the positive end of Electric vehicles is that you wouldn't need to visit the petrol station at all.

Of course part of the problem in the USA is just plain bad urban planning. In a lot of places there is no clustered downtown. It's impossible to get anywhere without a car. Instead of a car giving you freedom, you end out being chained to it.

You were probably unaware that "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was based on actual history (okay, loosely -- but Los Angeles USED to have a quite good mass transit system of trolley cars that were consciously shut down via subterfuge by the automaking industry and its minions)